


Balance

by lythly



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Genre: Gen, Spoilers, how it should have ended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 21:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21925480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lythly/pseuds/lythly
Summary: How The Rise Of Skywalker should have ended to follow through on the promise of The Force Awakens.It was a fine movie, but it could have been amazing.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn/Rey
Comments: 2
Kudos: 60





	Balance

"Strike me down and we shall become more powerful than you can imagine" Darth Sidius says, leering in anticipation.

She raises her lightsaber and feels a hand on hers. Kylo Ren, surrounded, takes a breath. It is in sync with hers, in and out. They feel it, together, the breath that is taken, in and out.

"Be with me," they say together, perfectly synchronized.

And then they are, the Jedi, filling their minds. The voices of peace and tranquility, and he takes the lightsaber from her hand as she pulls the second one.

"Be at peace" say the voices in their heads.

But as he glides between his attackers he feels the tears rolling down his cheeks, and as she steps back from Palpatine she still feels rage. Not the rage at what he had done to her or her parents; that had released with the breath. Not the rage at his uncle's betrayal, not any more. There is a deeper rage, though, at what they have inherited. At the responsibility they have been given.

Whether she accepts it or not, it will follow her. Whether he repents or not, the harm continues.

"Why peace?" they ask together.

And within the peace they feel two voices rise together. "Yes," these voices come, "Why?" That question carries with it a weight of pain, of abandonment and loneliness and fear, swallowed into the pool of tranquility but unquenched.

"Peace lets us escape hatred," says Anakin.

"You did nothing with your hatred," replies Kylo, "You left it lying upon that bridge and I could pick it up like mantle, more familiar than home."

"Their hatred endures," replies Ray, hearing the chants of the Sith that still rise around her.

"Escape is insufficient," the four voices say together. There is a breath, in and out, and he is beside her. Ben, and behind him the glow of Leia and Luke. They raise their lightsabers, in rage and peace, hurt and comfort, life and death, and together they strike.

Palpetine speeds backwards, his lightning trying to ward them off, but they let it pass through them, following their outrage, insulated by their calm. Before their sabers even reach him they have ripped him from his apparatus, pulling him apart in midair. Their flaming swords finish the dismemberment and with it the ritual.

The voices of the Sith flood their heads. All the centuries and millennia of fear, pain, self-loathing and, yes, greed, shout in unison, seeking to claim what is theirs.

But they have never been split before. Master to apprentice, it has always gone: a single vessel, a single will to be harnessed, an unbroken line of single-minded self-centered destruction.

Across two minds, there is no such unity. His self-loathing is not hers, for she has the love of two men whose judgement she trusts above her own. Her hatred for this man they destroy is not his, and Leia whispers "Anakin made his own choices." Each thread the Sith try to control leaves one or the other of them free to keep breathing.In and out. In and out.

As they breath, they also feel the Sith. The greed and desire and struggle to dominate, yes, but also threads of disgust and helplessness that drove them there. The refusal to turn away, and the horrors that were the result. They have pretended to unity since before history began, but they hate each other as much as the rest of the world. They hate themselves perhaps most of all. They claimed to embrace the darkness, but in truth they tried to conquer it. The terror of it and of themselves remained; they fulfilled what they expected of themselved.

In and out, and they are elsewhere. The pit is before them. The darkness oozes, and fear causes Ray's breath to hitch. Palpetine seizes the opportunity. He steps forward into her skin. He steps forward into the pit.

But he does not fall.

Yoda stands on the far side. He breaths with Ben, in and out, and Palpetine hangs between them. "Great darkness in you I sense," he says, "but afraid I am not. The emperor you were, but submit the galaxy did never. Rule, did not. Submit, did not. Only master. Taught me, she has." And with that, force lightning shoots from his fingers, driving Palpetine from Ray. The ghost of the master and the ghost of the emperor are drawn together by the electricity, merging and fading into the energy swirling between pit and sky. 

Ray gasps, breath and realization drawn together. She looks down, and then up, and spreads her arms. Ben reaches towards her, holding her, channeling power as she draws the edges of the darkness towards the edges of the sun.

"We are not you," they shout together, "we are new! We shall heal what you have cleaved asunder!"

The soft whispers try to retreat, but the pair breaths deeply, drawing them closer, welcoming them without submitting to their peace. "We shall destroy the Sith at last," they say, "and make amends. We know light can heal, not just burn."

The angry shouts try to fight and dominate, but the same breath brushes their attempts aside, welcoming them without submitting to their control. "We shall destroy the Jedi at last," they say to the Sith, "and dismantle the illusion of unity. We know darkness is not to be feared, but accepted." 

"We are ourselves," they cry together. "We shall not be ruled. We shall not submit. We shall not escape. We shall not dominate. We shall not have peace without justice. We shall not have justice without being subject to it. We stand together. We stand with those who stand with us."

"Stand with us!" The shout is not just their two voices anymore. Leia's voice and Luke's rise with them as darkness and sunlight meet and mix, globules and streaks and twilight in between. The rising vortex drives out those voices unwilling to yield. Some dissolve away, while others howl and resist. But a few join the cry, and then more. Slowly, the dissonance and fury becomes harmonics and momentum.

Still Ray is in its center and still Ben holds her together. As the last edges merge, a new cycle spinning up and down and up and down, he pulls her back, expending the last of his energy. He falls backwards, cushioning her landing with his body and a sickening crunch. 

She gasps, a sob rising. 

The voices recede. The vision of the pit and sky spinning together fades. Two people remain in an empty amphitheater. 

Well, one person.

Ray closes her eyes, and breaths. In and out. "Stand with me", she whispers.

The reply comes in her own voice, "Always."


End file.
